Brenda Corbin
corbin.brenda@usno.navy.mil

On September 16, JoAnn Sears (josears@umich.edu) became the new Mathematics/Physics Librarian at the University of Michigan. JoAnn notes that her fellow science librarians are very proud of the connection that UM has had with PAM over the years, and she looks forward to continuing that tradition.

Virginia Smith (vsmith@gemini.edu) and Kathleen Robertson (roberts@ifa.hawaii.edu) report that the astronomy librarians in Hawaii have been very busy recently:

The May visit of the Special Libraries Association President, Hope Tillman, to the Hawaiian-Pacific Chapter gave a small group of Hawaii librarians the opportunity to join Hope on a tour of the Gemini and Subaru telescopes atop Mauna Kea on Hawaii, the Big Island. The next evening, a cheerful assembly of librarians gathered at the Hilo Yacht Club for dinner and enjoyed a presentation by Hope, titled "Technology Trends in Libraries."

The ALOHA (Astronomy Librarians Of HAwaii) librarians get together about three times a year. On June 4, they held a special high tech meeting. The members gathered in Hilo, Kamuela (towns on the island of Hawaii) and Manoa (island of Oahu),and met via Polycom teleconferencing, that allowed them simultaneously to see, hear and talk with each other. The website, Librarians to the Stars (http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/aloha_library/), has more information on ALOHA members and meetings.

On August 7, Virginia, Kathleen and Emiko Tsang (Subaru) conducted a tour of the Gemini, Joint Astronomy Center, Subaru and IfA Hilo libraries for University of Hawaii-Hilo's librarians, in preparation for the 2002-03 school year.

Christina Birdie (chris@iiap.ernet.in) writes that she and Vagiswari Alladi (vagiiap@iiap.ernet.in) of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics Library are arranging a Round Table discussion meeting on the issues related to consortia of libraries in India. Planned for November 2002, this will be the first time in India that the concept of consortia of libraries will be discussed among the special libraries. They are planning to invite Ms. Ann Okerson of Yale University library to deliver the key note address. Christina and Vagiswari feel that the experience gained from their organization of the astronomy libraries consortium (FORSA) has given them the confidence to hold this two-day national level meeting.

Myrna Koch Cifuentes has retired as Head Librarian of the Biblioteca Gauss at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile. Myra was chosen for the PAM International Member Award in 2001 and attended the SLA meeting in San Antonio. Denise Depoortere (ddepoort@puc.cl) is the new librarian of the Biblioteca Gauss. We wish Myrna well in her retirement and welcome Denise to her new position.